PROPER 8B – 2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27; Psalm 130; 2 Corinthians 8:7-15; Mark 5:21-43 –

28 June 2009 – A sermon given by The Rev. Peter A. Munson for St. Ambrose Episcopal Church, Boulder, Colorado

Faith and Wellness

INTRODUCTION – Wellness

I have been in a clergy wellness group ever since I was ordained 17+ years ago. The groups I have been in have changed, whether you are speaking about the other members of the group, or the person who has been the facilitator. But I have always been in such a group. Members of churches should always expect their clergy to be in such a group. Besides being a great way to keep learning and growing, it is a place for accountability. It is a place that helps you figure out what personal stuff you need to work on and what is not your stuff but someone else’s stuff. And the wisdom of the other people in the group can be absolutely indispensable when it comes to helping each other avoid doing the really stupid thing that messes up a congregation, as well as becoming hopefully wise enough that we as clergy won’t allow others in the congregation to get away with things that really mess up our life together.

Wellness, of course, is not a subject that is only for clergy. Many companies talk to their employees about wellness, and how can we all do things on the proactive and preventative side of things to stay healthy. I bet that when I say the word “wellness”, certain thoughts and images come to mind. Probably you think of regular exercise, and certain kinds of exercise, like stretching and things that get your heart rate up and lifting weights. You probably think about diet and trying to get enough sleep and trying to have the good type of stress while avoiding the prolonged, debilitating kind of stress that will literally make you sick. You probably think about doing the things that ground you and give you life and renew you, whatever those might be for you.

I wonder, when you think about wellness, if your faith is part of the equation. Did you know that people who go to church regularly live longer, and are generally happier than others in the population who don’t? But I don’t think it’s simply a going-to-church thing, although that’s part of it. It’s also the act of being faithful – trusting in God, acting as if God is for you, and living your life with that approach… that everything is not up to you, that some things are up to God, and yes, God wants to guide you in having a life that involves living in faithful ways, on a regular basis – THAT is perhaps the most crucial part of wellness. Is anyone out there telling you that? Are any of the people writing the newspaper or magazine articles telling you that? Maybe not, so I will. You can never be really well unless you attend to your spiritual life, and exercise your faith on a regular basis.

This is why Jesus said, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10b) He wasn’t talking about having lots of houses or lots of possessions, for he was someone with almost no possessions. He was talking about having a full life, a joyful life, a life of goodness and wellness.

TWO HEALING STORIES

We have two healing stories in today’s gospel, and one story interrupts the other one. A leader of the synagogue named Jairus, at his wit’s end, came to Jesus. His 12-year-old daughter was not just sick, but dying, and Jairus was desperate. Mark tells us that Jairus fell at Jesus’ feet and begged him, not once, but repeatedly, “Come and lay your hands on [my daughter], so that she may be made well, and live.” (Mark 5:23) Mark tells us, as only Mark can, “And he [Jesus] went with him.”

Only Jairus and his daughter were going to have a wait a little longer, for as a great crowd walked along with Jesus, a women who had been bleeding for twelve years, and “who had endured much under many physicians, and had spent all she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse” (Mark 5:26) – another desperate person – thought to herself, “If I touch even his garments, I shall be made well.” And she came up behind Jesus in the crowd and touched him.

And the woman immediately felt different. The bleeding stopped, and “she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease.” (Mark 5:29) Imagine! After twelve years, how she suddenly must have felt!

And Jesus, being Jesus, felt something, too. He felt power going out of him, at the moment that the woman touched him. And we get this rather amusing dialogue between Jesus and his disciples.

Jesus: “Who touched my clothes?”

The disciples: “You see the crowd pressing in on you; [you’re kidding, right?] How can you say, ‘Who touched me?’” [Half of the people from the region of Galilee are touching you, Jesus. You want to know which person, as in one person?]

Jesus looked around to see who had touched him. And the woman could have run away. But she didn’t. She knew something had changed inside of her, and when Jesus stopped to see who had touched him, she couldn’t act like she didn’t know anything about it. She came and fell down before him, “in fear and trembling”, and told him what had happened. And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”

What made her well, according to Jesus? That’s right, her faith. Her faith that God could heal her, like no one else could. Her faith in Jesus - in his love, and his power. Her faith healed her. And as someone said in our class last week, Jesus’ final words to her were like saying, “You can still push away the gift of this healing. Don’t do that. Keep believing that you are healed. Keep having faith. Go in peace, and be healed – be fully healed – of your disease.”

We want to hold on to stuff sometimes. It would be very tempting and even easy for someone who had been sick for twelve years to identify themselves as primarily a sick person, as primarily a victim. “I am sick, I am unclean, I have been separated from the community for twelve years because of this condition. This is who I am.” Or she can step fully into the healing, and embrace it fully, and be healed - once and for all time - of her disease.

Meanwhile, what if you were Jairus, witnessing all this? Wouldn’t you feel a little conflicted inside? The impatient part of you… come on Jesus, my daughter is dying, we should be running, not walking, and now you are stopping and asking who touched you, and talking to this woman about her faith making her well? WE NEED TO GET TO MY HOUSE, AND RIGHT NOW! And the other part of you… wow, he just healed this woman, and I just heard her tell the whole story of how she had been sick for twelve years. This gives me hope, when I’ve been losing hope. OKAY! NOW WE REALLY NEED TO BE GOING!

And before they even reached Jairus’ house, some people came from his home and said, “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further?” (Mark 5:35)

Are you kidding me? After what I have just seem him do? And now we are too late, just a few minutes too late. And my daughter is dead. It doesn’t say this in the text, but I imagine that Jairus collapses, or is on the verge of collapsing, upon hearing this news. And immediately Jesus says to him, “Do not fear, only believe.”

These are the two main approaches to life, the fork in the road that we all encounter. And Jesus names it in only five words. “Do not fear, only believe.” Do you want to live your life, primarily motivated by fear? Or do you want to life your life, primarily motivated by faith?

And… not to neglect the earlier point, which one do you think is the path that is most likely to lead you to wellness, fullness of life, and joy?

I’m pretty darn sure that living your life primarily out of a stance of fear will not lead you to wellness, fullness of life, and joy. I know one other thing after reading the Bible pretty regularly for the last 30 years. There is one refrain that originates in God over and over again, in the Old Testament and the New Testament. “Be not afraid.” God knows we have a tendency – a BIG tendency – to go to that fearful place. But again and again, God says to us, “Don’t go there. I am here with you. I am asking you to trust this promise that I make to you, no matter how bleak things might look. Even if your daughter has just died. Do not fear, only believe.”

You heard the rest of the story. In the middle of all that was happening, Jesus walked up to all the grieving people and said, “Why do you make a commotion and weep? The child is not dead but sleeping.” (Mark 5:39) And how did they respond? Again, Mark puts it succinctly. They laughed at him. Was Jesus deterred from what he planned to do? He had his own faith. We must never miss that part of the story. He went to the girl, and touched her hand, and said, “Little girl, get up! [Arise!]”

Doesn’t it sort of make you wonder if Jesus heard some very similar words when he was in the tomb? Maybe he even felt the touch of his heavenly Father’s hand. “Jesus, my son, my beloved son whom I love so much, and who I am so proud of, get up! Arise!”

And immediately the girl got up and began to walk about, and in the middle of everyone’s amazement, Jesus said, “Give her something to eat. She’s twelve! She’s a growing girl! She’s going to be hungry! Feed her!”

CONCLUSION

Faithfulness and wellness go hand in hand. Ask Jairus. Ask the woman who had been sick for twelve years. Ask Jesus. Ask anyone you know who has a sparkle in their eyes, a song in their heart, and/or an amazing capacity to get through the toughest times, and still be a person who exudes gratitude, hope, fullness of life, and yes – even joy.

I’ll leave you with a few questions to think about. They all come out of today’s gospel.

What have you struggled with for twelve years or more, and how might you taking some step of faith shift and transform that struggle?

Whom do you touch, and what difference has it made in your life, and to the people that you touch?

And finally: Who or what do you care so much about, that you will beg God… risk “interrupting” God, even repeatedly, until something is changed? How would your life be different if you lived and prayed like that?